Finger-bar



m0 Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

A. J} INGLIS. FINGER BAR- No. 447,245. Pat ented Feb. '24, 1891 me "our": PETERS cm, mum-Lima, wAsmnu'mm n. a.

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

- .A. J. INGLIS.

FINGER BAR.

,245. Patented Feb. 24, 1891.

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UNITED STATES P TENT OFFICE;

ANDRElV J. INGLIS, OF MILVAUKEE, WISCONSIN.

FING ER-BAR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 447,245, dated February 24, 1891.

Application filed October 30, 1890. Serial No. 369,862. (No model.)

To ctZZ whcm it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ANDREW J. INGLIS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Milwaukee, in the county of Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin, have invented certain Improvements in Cutting Apparatus for Mowing-Ma chines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the cutting apparatus of a mowing-machine and more in particular to that part known as the finger-bar.

There is a demand for mowing-machines having wide cutting apparatus, and in order that this class of machines may be free from side draft and possess no unnecessary direct draft it is customary to counterbalance the weight of the cutting apparatus and support it from its inner end. This method is in itself incomplete, for when the finger-bar is supported in this way its weight causes its free end to deflect downward and the middle upward.

To obviate this difiiculty is the object of my invention; and to this end it consists in forming a succession of trusses upon the lower side of the finger-bar by means of the guardfingers, which arrest the deflection of the finger-bar and cause it to extend practically in a straight line when supported by its inner end.

It also consists of certain details and combination of parts, which, with the foregoing,

will be fully hereinafter described, and finally pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings, Figures 1 and 2 are respectively plan and edge views of a finger-bar embodying my'invention. Fig. 3 is a plan View of a finger-bar with the shoes and guardfingers omitted, and Fig. 4; is an edge View of the same. Fig. 5 is a side view of a guardfinger detached from the finger-bar. Fig. 6 is a plan view of a portion of a guard-finger, showing the heel or that part by which it is secured to the finger-bar. Fig. 7 is an end view of a guard-finger viewed from the rear and shows by dotted line w 00 how the upper face of the heel portion is formed. Figs. 8

' and 9 are respectively plan and end views of is deflected downward by means of the hollowed heel of the guard-finger and its bolt.

A is the finger-bar, to which is bolted the inner shoe B, by which the finger-bar is supported and controlled. The guard-fingers O are bolted to the lower side of the finger-bar and are provided with the usual abutting portion a, contiguous with its front edge. The heels 1) of the guard-fingers are hollowed out upon their upper face in line with their extension, as shown in Figs. 6 and 7 and modifications, Figs. 8 and 9. When the guard-fingers are bolted to the finger-bar, the edges b and b of the inverted arched face of the heel I) rest upon the finger-bar, and in conjunction with the bolt 0 and nut c constitute a truss for the support of a portion of the finger-bar. The upper face of the heel b is made wider than is necessary in a guard-finger when the single object in view is the securing of it to the finger-bar. This width may be varied in proportion to the flexibility and the thickness of the finger-bar; but I find by experiment that when the finger-bar is seven feet in length and has an even thickness of three-eighths of an inch and is uniform in taper, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4, two inches is a sufficient width for said upper face.

A finger-bar when supported and counterbalanced from .its inner end shows the greatest degree of deflection at about onethird its length from the inner shoe, and from near this pointto the end the deflection uniforml y decreases. I therefore increase the tension of the bolts 0 upon the guard-fingers and finger-bar by means of the nuts 0' in proportion to the degree of deflection shown op posite each respective guard-finger when the finger-bar is counterbalanced, as described, until the finger-bar is caused to assume a straight line when thus supported from its inner end. When suflicient tension is given bolt 0 by nut c, the guard-finger O, with its heel b hollowed out, as herein described will cause a portion of the finger-bar to deflect, as shown in Fig. 10, and if this process be applied to each guard-finger in proportion to the degree of downward deflection of the free end of the finger-bar the finger-bar will then as sume an upward curvature, as shown in Fig.

2, which will when supported from its inner end straighten out to practically a straight line.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination, in the cutting apparatus of a mowing-machine, of the finger-bar and the guard-fingers, the former supported from its inner end and the latter having their heel faces hollowed out in the direction of their lengths, which will by means of the bolts by which the guard-fingers are secured to the form er cause it to assume a downward middle curvature sufficient to be straightened by its own Weight, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination, with the fingerJoar, of guard-fingers having on the sides only of their heels raised edges adapted to bear against said finger-bar and bolts binding said guardfingers between their hearings to said fingerbar substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

ANDRINV J. INGLIS.

\Vitnesses:

CHARLES W. HAMILTON, J. M. PETERS. 

